With only 10 days left until a team from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission arrives in Athens to check how Greece is progressing with its economic reforms ahead of receiving an 8-billion-euro loan tranche next month, the government is facing a battle with civil servants that could hamper its effort to make changes. The government – as daily Kathimerini notes – has a number of loose ends it needs to tie up by the time the troika inspectors arrive in Athens on August 22. These include the shutting down of public bodies, the introduction of a single pay structure in the civil service and the speeding up of a privatization program. However, on the last two, PASOK appears to have come up against fierce resistance from public sector workers.
Civil servants’ union ADEDY (that represents the country’s some 800,000 civil servants) made it clear this week that its members would strike in September if their wages are cut further. Bureaucrats have already seen their salaries slashed by up to 30% since last year. This week, they also began working an extra 30 minutes each day, taking their working week to 40 hours from 37.5.
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